Cherokee Farm | Leadership

Cherokee Farm: The Innovation Campus

David Millhorn, Executive Vice President
The University of Tennessee

David Millhorn is University of Tennessee executive vice president, serving as the chief operating officer of the University’s four campuses and three statewide institutes. He also continues as UT vice president for research and economic development.

He joined UT in 2005 as vice president for research, overseeing the management of science and technology programs at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the research and economic development programs for the UT system. He became executive vice president in early 2007.

Before coming to UT, Millhorn served the University of Cincinnati as the inaugural director of its Genome Research Institute and chairman of its Department of Genome Science. He is a member of the American Physiological Society, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Society for Neuroscience, and the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
Millhorn holds the bachelor’s degree from UT Chattanooga and the Ph.D. from Ohio State University. He was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Physiology at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

Thomas Zacharia, Vice President for Science and Technology
The University of Tennessee

Thomas Zacharia is University of Tennessee vice president for science and technology, as well as associate laboratory director for computing and computational sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. In his role at UT, held since October 2007, Zacharia coordinates efforts to integrate supercomputing into research programs at the University’s various campuses across the state.
In his role at ORNL, Zacharia leads the laboratory’s research agenda in high-performance computing, furthering the Department of Energy’s missions in advancing science, national security, energy security, and sustainable development.

Supercomputing is an increasingly important tool used to solve problems as complex and diverse as those being studied in the fields of healthcare, engineering and climate change. Zacharia leads UT’s efforts to investigate these and other complex problems through high-performance computing resources. He also is a professor in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department at the University of Tennessee.

Under Zacharia’s leadership, UT and ORNL have established a partnership with the National Science Foundation focused upon computational research. Zacharia led the joint proposal for a $65 million award to build one of the world’s most powerful supercomputers at the UT-ORNL Joint Institute for Computational Sciences. In August, the Foundation notified the UT-ORNL team of approval for the grant that, if finalized, would further strengthen the UT-ORNL partnership among the ranks of the nation’s elite centers of high-performance computing.

Prior to his appointment as associate laboratory director, Zacharia served ORNL in nearly every capacity since 1987, including the founding group leader of the Modeling and Simulation Group in 1993, the founding director of the Computational Center for Industrial Innovation in 1995, and as the deputy associate laboratory director for Physical Sciences and the director of the Computer Science and Mathematics Division in 2000.

Zacharia is the recipient of several scientific and technical awards, a number of leadership awards, and regularly serves on scientific, professional, academic, and civic boards.

He has established a successful student outreach program that has trained more than 90 under-represented and minority students in math and science. Over the last five years, his directorate has mentored more than 270 students and more than 130 post-doctoral fellows.

He received a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from India’s Karnataka Regional Engineering College in 1980 and a master’s degree in materials science from the University of Mississippi in 1984. He was awarded a doctoral degree in engineering science from Clarkson University in 1987.

Joseph DiPietro, Vice President for Agriculture
The University of Tennessee

Dr. Joseph A. DiPietro joined the University of Tennessee in 2006 as vice president for agriculture.

He came to UT from the University of Florida, where he had been dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine since 1997. Prior to that he was at the University of Illinois as associate dean for research at the College of Veterinary Medicine and assistant director of the Illinois Agriculture Experiment Station. He also was professor of veterinary pathobiology.

The UT vice president for agriculture is the chief academic and administrative officer of the Institute of Agriculture and is responsible for planning, implementing, and leading strong, progressive research, teaching, and extension programs. Components of the Institute of Agriculture include UT Extension, the Tennessee Agricultural Experiment Station, the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, and the College of Veterinary Medicine. The Institute of Agriculture is headquartered on the Knoxville campus of the university, but has a strong statewide presence with Extension Offices in all 95 Tennessee counties, 10 research education centers, four 4-H centers, and three regional Extension offices.

Through its programs the institute advances plant, animal, human, and environmental health and promotes both rural and urban economic development and growth. The clientele includes students, farmers, homemakers, 4-H and other youth, agribusiness, state and federal governmental agencies, consumers, and the general public.

DiPietro earned three degrees at the University of Illinois—the B.S. (1974), DVM (1976), and M.S. (1980).

He is a director of the Tennessee Farm Bureau Federation and serves on the national agricultural research, education, and economic advisory board to the U.S. secretary of agriculture. He is a member of the American Veterinary Medical Association, the American Association of Veterinary Parasitologists, the Tennessee Veterinary Medical Association, and the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (administrative heads section).

Jan Simek, Interim Chancellor
The University of Tennessee Knoxville

Jan Simek served as Loren Crabtree's (former UT Knoxville Chancellor) chief of staff beginning in 2005, and became interim chancellor in January 2008. He is an archaeologist who came to UT Knoxville in 1984 as an assistant professor of anthropology. Simek is a Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and formerly served as head of the Anthropology Department for eight years, the interim director of the School of Art and served as interim dean in the College of Architecture and Design for two years.

Simek received a bachelor's degree from the University of California at Santa Cruz and a master's degree and doctorate from the State University of New York in Binghamton. He has carried out archaeological research in France, Italy, Croatia, California and Tennessee, and has received research funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Geographic Society and the French Ministry of Culture. He has held visiting faculty appointments at the University of Washington, the University of Bordeaux and the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain.

Sylvia Davis, Vice President for Strategic Planning and Operations
The University of Tennessee

Sylvia Davis, University of Tennessee vice president for strategic planning and operations, joined UT in 1994. She is responsible for the university’s strategic planning process, system-wide institutional research and performance assessment, THEC coordination on resource acquisition, fiscal review contract processing, trademark licensing, management of graphic arts, mail services, transportation services, warehousing, and surplus property, records management, flight operations, and provides special budgetary counsel on state appropriations.
Since coming to UT, Davis has served in various positions including bursar, budget director, assistant and associate vice president for budget and finance, and vice president for administration and finance. Davis came to UT from the Tennessee Board of Regents, where she was associate vice chancellor for business and finance. She previously worked in the Tennessee Department of Finance and Administration Budget Office and the office of the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury.

Davis holds two degrees from the University of Alabama—the undergraduate degree in accounting and the MBA.

She serves on the University Health Systems board of directors, the University of Tennessee Athletics Board, UT Chattanooga Athletics Board, the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges Council of Business Affairs, where she currently serves as Secretary, SAP Higher Education and Research Advisory Council, and the Knoxville Area Chamber Partnership finance committee. She currently serves as a member of Tennessee’s “Marking Opportunity Affordable” state team and the 2008 Harold Love Community Service Award Taskforce.

Jeff Smith, Deputy Director of Operations
Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Jeff Smith coordinates overall operations and support functions at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory: facilities operations; environment, safety, and health; business operations; security; human resources; communications; and technology transfer. In concert with the Deputy Director of Science and Technology, he supports the Laboratory Director in the planning, integration, and execution of Laboratory-level initiatives.

While at ORNL, Mr. Smith has led a $300 million modernization project that has given rise to more new construction at the Laboratory at any time since the Manhattan Project. Under Mr. Smith’s leadership, UT-Battelle has used partnerships with the State of Tennessee, private-sector financing, and innovative approaches to using federal resources to transform ORNL. In support of this transformation, Mr. Smith serves as the president of UT-Battelle Development Company, a special-purpose entity established for the purpose of developing privately constructed facilities to be used to meet the needs of the federal government.

A native of Logan, Ohio, Mr. Smith graduated from The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, with a bachelor’s degree in ceramic engineering. Before coming to ORNL, he was Deputy for Operations at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, acting as principal advisor to the Laboratory Director on operational matters. He previously served as the Quality Director at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, leading the development of several laboratory management approaches that continue to serve Battelle and the laboratories that it manages today.

Mr. Smith served on the White House Transition Planning Office responsible for creating the Department of Homeland Security. In addition, he has served on several Battelle acquisition efforts, supporting successful proposals by Battelle and its partners to manage the Brookhaven National Laboratory, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and most recently the Idaho National Laboratory. He has also served on the National Laboratory Improvement Council and numerous ad hoc groups sponsored by the Department of Energy to address operational challenges facing the Department and its laboratories.